How much stuff survives 13 address changes?

SEATTLE, Washington - While working on a sink in my house I found a bowling ball towel (pictured below) that I knew dated from way way back, back before I even moved out on my own in October 1992, seventeen years ago this month.

Which got me wondering, how much of my stuff, my physical possessions, dates all the way back to my first apartment? We accumulate so much stuff, most of it seems somewhat important when we acquire it, but how much has made it with me for 17 years, which includes 13 address changes in six states?

There is the towel and other items from my job at that time:



I still have the license plate from my truck:



My father's M5 Bayonet from his time in the USMC:



I over-did it a bit with gear in my first apartment, a bad move considering my income at the time; of all the furniture and kitchen gear the only survivor is this humble blender:



When I moved out, I figured a responsible fellow keeps track of his paperwork, so I got an accordion-style folder. It has assorted stuff like 15-year-old credit card statements, receipts, the kind of stuff I routinely throw away today. It also contains a small newspaper clipping, folded up, that my mother gave me when I moved out (she seemed convinced I hated her and the world was ending, what son moves out of the house before marriage?) and that I was instructed not to read until she dies. It is still in there, unread, awaiting her death.



Only a tiny crumb of the 450 or so books in my house have been with me 17 years. A few old college books, and a tiny selection of other stuff. I was not a reader then.



How has this survived the ages, this is a recording of a Dungeons & Dragons session I ran. It must date from 1984 or 1985. I don't have any technology to play it on, thank goodness.



And, my old Dungeons & Dragons dice have never left me. (My old favorites, the yellow d8 and the clear d20!)



I think that's it.